Mineral

• One of the few Cretaceous age deposits that’s been discovered in Africa is at Botswana’s Orapa Diamond Mine.
• Recently a team I lead discovered two new species of rove beetles preserved in the sediments of the Orapa Diamond Mine.
• Rove beetles are typically identified by their unique short elytra (protective wing cases) which expose the rest of the abdomen.
• Our finds are the first fossil rove beetles ever discovered on the continent and in the southern hemisphere.
• The fossils closely resemble today’s rove beetles, showing how successful they’ve been in adapting to various environments without significant changes to their bodies.

Identifying the fossils

• We found the fossils in lacustrine sediments (deposits that accumulate in lake environments).
• Afristenus orapensis belongs to the stenine rove beetle subgroup while Paleothius mckayi belongs to the subgroup staphylinine.
• The stenine rove beetle was previously described in Russia, France and Myanmar while the staphylinine rove beetle was previously described in Russia, China, Myanmar and England.
• So we scoured research articles about fossils of a similar age that have already been studied elsewhere for comparative purposes.

More to find

• We are currently studying each specimen and preparing academic manuscripts that describe what we’ve found.
• My hope is that more money will be invested in training more palaeoentomologists in South Africa and on the continent more broadly.
• The study of fossil insects and plants is an important way to preserve our beloved continent’s heritage.

Sandiso Mnguni receives funding from GENUS (Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences - UID 86073). He is affiliated with the Sophumelela Youth Development Programme (SYDP).

• Dr. Chana Poomee, along with the TCMA Board, outlined the long-term direction of TCMA, which is a collaboration nexus of leading Thai cement producers.
• TCMA, over the next two years, 2024-2026 will accelerate its efforts to join forces with all sectors to achieve the key missions in four areas:
  1.
• Accelerating the expansion of maximize resource-efficiency mining practices according to the Minerals Act B.E.
• TCMA, with this action aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not less than 6.9 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2030.

• EcoGraf Limited (EcoGraf or the Company) (ASX: EGR; FSE: FMK; OTCQX: ECGFF) is pleased to announce an update on construction and commissioning activities for the Product Qualification Facility (‘PQF’ or ‘Facility’) in Western Australia with operations to commence in April 2024.
• The PQF will undertake a number of product campaigns which is scheduled over the remainder of the year, the plant will operate at 5-10kg/hr with the first 5 tonnes of product in place for processing.
• The Facility will complement the Company’s product testing activities, while the PQF campaigns will benefit from recent flowsheet improvements that is expected to support further reduction in costs while increasing the purity of the material above customers specifications.
• The Facility is jointly funded through the Commonwealth Government’s A$48.9m Critical Minerals Development Program, which is supporting Australian battery minerals processing capability.

• Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 27, 2024) - Canter Resources Corp. (CSE: CRC) (OTC Pink: CNRCF) (FSE: 6O1) ("Canter" or the "Company") is pleased to report that the Company has selected Cascade Drilling L.P. to complete shallow Geoprobe drilling at the Columbus Lithium-Boron Project ("Columbus" or the "Project"), located near Tonopah, Nevada.
• The Geoprobe drill campaign has been designed to collect both sediment and water samples from depths ranging between 3-30 metres (approximately 10-100 feet) below surface.
• "The shallow Geoprobe program compliments our upcoming exploration well drilling as part of Phase I work and will provide us with another valuable dataset at Columbus," stated Joness Lang, CEO of Canter Resources.
• In addition to characterizing the interpreted shallow brine generation layer, the Geoprobe drilling will provide more structural and geochemical data from 15-45 m depths that will further inform the Company's geological model.